Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will try to go through the questions very quickly and we can come back on further detail. To start from the last question, the blood sample issue will be addressed as part of the GP contract. There needs to be a consistent approach to this and it needs to be fixed.

On the issue of legal cases, reporting to Ministers, the State Claims Agency, SCA, and reporting into Departments there will have to be significant learning as a result of the scoping inquiry. As the members have heard from the SCA, the Department, the HSE and other Departments there is no reporting mechanism at the moment. The SCA is an arm of the National Treasury Management Agency, NTMA, and sits under the Department of Finance. I expect recommendations will come from that and we will need to act on them.

I do not have the figures for spinal surgery here. Ms Fitzgerald might comment if she has any data. We are investing a lot in the National Treatment Purchase Fund, NTPF, so people can go abroad once their consultant recommends it, and the treatment is recognised as an appropriate one here. Ms Fitzgerald might say more about that.